ADDRESSES 



INAUGURATION 



Rey. JAMES WALKER, D. D., 



PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 



TUESDAY, JNIAY 24, 1853. 



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.CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN BARTLETT 

BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

1853. 



ADDRESSES 



INAUGURATION 



Rev. JAMES ^YALKER, D. D 

/ 



PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 



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TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1853. 



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5 CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN BARTLETT 

BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

18 5 3. 



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lb t 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
JOHN BARTLETT, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALP AJTD COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITT. 



NOTICE. 



Mr. Jared Sparks, LL. D. having sent his resignation of 
the Presidency of Harvard College to the Corporation, to take 
effect at the close of the first term of the Academical year 
1852-3, the Corporation chose, on the 27th of January, 1853, 
Professor James Walker, T>, D. as his successor, and this ap- 
pointment was unanimously confirmed by the Board of Over- 
seers on the 3d of March following. 

In selecting the 24th of May as the day for inducting, by 
public ceremonies and in presence of the official representa- 
tives of the State, the new President into office, the considera- 
tion of most weight regarded the w^elfare and good order of 
those immediately connected with the College. An interrup- 
tion of regular study by a new holiday is always prejudicial to 
discipline and scholarship ; and the inconvenience and injury 
are most serious in the second term, where a number of estab- 
lished holidays already exist, and where the course of the 
Senior Class is shortened by a few weeks to enable them to pre- 
pare for Commencement. By placing the Inauguration on the 
day immediately preceding the May recess, the evils in ques- 
tion were reduced within as narrow limits as possible. 

On the 26th of March, a committee, consisting of Hon. S. A. 
Eliot on the part of the Corporation, and Professor Bowen, 
Professor Levering, Professor Child, and Professor Lane, on 
the part of the Faculty, with W. Gr. Stearns, Esq., the College 
Steward, was appointed to make arrangements for the Inaugu- 
ration. 



A public dinner, such as had been given bj the College on 
similar occasions to the Alumni, students, and invited guests, 
was not recommended by the committee at the present time. 
So great has been the recent growth of the College that it is 
not practicable to accommodate the students at dinner with the 
Alumni and strangers ; and it was not thought advisable to 
give a dinner, and exclude from this part of the enjoyment of 
the day those so immediately interested in it as the under- 
graduates are. A public reception in Harvard Hall, such as 
was given at the inauguration of President Sparks, had prac- 
tical difficulties which were thought to render a repetition of 
that hospitaUty inexpedient. Moreover, their experience at 
the last two inaugurations had satisfied the committee, that an 
illumination of the College buildings was likely, in the present 
crowded state of the city of Cambridge and its neighborhood, 
to attract into the College grounds a crowd of visitors of a de- 
scription to do little honor to the occasion. So far as such a 
demonstration may be interpreted as a mark of honor to the 
President whose inauguration it celebrates, it is confidently be- 
lieved that those feelings of respect and attachment which all 
connected with the College, as well as the community at large, 
feel on the present occasion, will be expressed in a form which 
will give better satisfaction.* Believing that the inaugura- 

* At the inauguration of President Leverett, on the 14th of January, 
1708, it is recorded in Judge SevvalFs Diary: "The Governor prepared 
a Latin speech for the instalment of the President : then took the Presi- 
dent by the hand, led him down into the Hall (from the Library). The 
books of the College records, charter, seal, and keys were laid upon the 
table running parallel with that next the entry. The Governor sat with 
his back against a noble fire." The inauguration of President Wads- 
worth, in 1725, was on Commencement Day. At the inauguration of Pres- 
ident Holyoke, in 1737, a public dinner completed the performances. An 
illumination of the College buildings was first introduced at the inauguration 
of President Willard, in 1781, and has been repeated at every inauguration 
since, till the last. The dinner at President Willard's inauguration is de- 
scribed in the books of the Corporation as a " very decent entertainment." 



tion of a President of Harvard College was never of greater 
moment to the republic of letters, to the common weal of this 
State, or to the whole country, than at the present time, and 
feeling a sincere desire to pay the truest and highest re- 
spect to a gentleman who was to give new honor to an office 
which was already so distinguished by those who had formerly 
filled it, the committee came to the decision that the simple liter- 
ary and religious ceremonies usual on such occasions, the pro- 
cession of students and Alumni, of those who were just putting 
on their armor and those who had already taken it off, the 
impressive unfolding of the College charter, the handling of the 
College seal and keys, the notes of the organ, and the prayer, 
with the literary performances of the day, were most in accord- 
ance with the best taste of the community, with the nature of 
the institution, and with the character of the President to be 
inducted into office. 

Although the attractions of the anniversary week in Boston 
kept away some who otherwise would have found pleasure in 



These ceremonies and festivities, thus begun, have been continued with 
little variation to the present day, except exchanging Latin for English in 
most of the addresses, and a ball in the evening occasionally. Sometimes 
the whole College dined with the Corporation and guests ; at other times 
only the two higher classes. At the inauguration of President Langdon, 
in 1774, all public ceremony was omitted except the reading, in presence 
of the students, of the Corporation's letter of appointment, and the Presi- 
dent's reply, on account of the extreme peril of the country. An omission 
to illuminate the College buildings at the recent inauguration caused less 
disappointment to the students, partly because it had lost of late the 
attraction of novelty, and partly because some expected to be absent at 
their homes during the recess. The tendency in all such matters at the 
present day is towards greater simplicity. Formerly the induction of 
Professors into office was celebrated with Latin and Hebrew, with dinners 
and illuminations. In 1786, the Corporation passed a vote forbidding the 
students to illuminate the College buildings, at the induction of Rev. E. 
Pearson as Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental languages, 
on account of the embarrassed state of the public finances. 



attending, the friends of the College assembled in large num- 
bers at three o'clock, in Gore Hall, agreeably to announcement 
in the newspapers and cards of invitation to strangers and 
gentlemen officially connected with the College. 

At a quarter past three o'clock the procession began to be 
formed at the north avenue from Gore Hall, under the direc- 
tion of S. E. Guild, Esq., Chief Marshal, and at half past 
three o'clock took up its march in the following order : — 

"ORDER OF PROCESSION FROM GORE HALL. 

Undergraduates in the order of Classes. 

Resident Graduates and Members of the Professional and 

Scientific Schools. 

Music. 

Librarian with the College Seal and Charter. 

Steward' with the College Keys. 

Members of the Corporation. 

Professors and other Officers of Instruction, and Government 

in the University. 

Ex-Presidents Quincy, Everett, and Sparks, and former 

Members of the Corporation. 

Ex-Professors. 

Sheriffs of Suffolk and Middlesex. 

His Excellency the Governor, and the President Elect. 

The Governor's Aids. 

His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, and the Adjutant-General. 

The Honorable the Executive Council. 

The Honorable and Reverend Overseers. 

The Trustees of the Hopkins Fund. 

The Committee on the Boylston Medical Prizes. 

The Committees of Examination for the present year. 

Gentlemen specially invited. 

Presidents and Professors of other Colleges in New England. 

Professors in Theological, Law, and Medical Schools in 

Massachusetts. 



Judges of the State and United States Courts. 

Other Officers of those Courts. 

The President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of 

Representatives. 

The President of the Convention for the Revision of the 

Constitution of the Commonwealth. 

Auditor, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 

Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of Cambridge. 

School Committee, Clerk, and Treasurer of Cambridge. 

Alumni of the College in the order of Classes." 

After passing along the north avenue from Gore Hall to 
its intersection with the path from University Hall, the pro- 
cession moved up the latter path to the front of University 
Hall, and thence to the First Parish Church, which it entered 
at three quarters past three o'clock. The services in the 
Church proceeded as follows : — 

"ORDER OF EXERCISES IN THE CHURCH. 

I. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 

II. HYMN.* 

In pleasant lands have fallen the lines 

That bound our goodly heritage. 
And safe beneath our sheltering vines 

Our youth is blessed, and soothed our age. 

What thanks, O God, to thee are due, 
That thou didst plant our fathers here. 

And watch and guard them, as they grew, 
A vineyard to the Planter dear ! 

The toils they bore our ease have wrought : 
They sowed in tears, — in joy we reap ; 

" Sung also at the inauguration of President Everett. 



8 



The birthright they so dearly bought 

We 'II guard till we with them shall sleep. 

Thy kindness to our fathers shown, 
In weal and woe, through all the past, 

Their grateful sons, O God, shall own. 
While here their name and race shall last. 



III. PRAYER, 

BY THE REV. DR. LOTHROP. 

IV. ADDRESS AND INDUCTION INTO OFFICE, 

BY HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLIFFORD. 

V. REPLY, 
BY PRESIDENT WALKER. 

VI. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 
VII. ORATION IN LATIN, 

BY CHARLES CARROLL, OF THE SENIOR CLASS. 

VIII. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 
IX. INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

BY PRESIDENT WALKER. 



BY THE REV. DR. FRANCIS. 

XI. DOXOLOGY. 

From all that dwell below the skies, 
Let the Creator's praise arise ; 
Let the Redeemer's name be sung 
Through eveiy land, by every tongue. 



Eternal are thy mercies, Lord ; 

Eternal truth attends thy word : 

Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, 

Till suns shall rise and set no more. 



XII. 



The presence of three ex-Presidents upon tlie stage, Hon. 
Josiah Quincy, Hon. Edward Everett, now Senator in Con- 
gress, and Hon. Jared Sparks, was an interesting sight, and so 
unusual that it could never have happened before in the history 
of the College at the inauguration of any President. 

On the 28th of May the Corporation passed a vote, inviting 
President Walker to print his Inaugural Address in the usual 
form. Subsequently the undergraduates made a similar re- 
quest, as appears by the following correspondence. 

" Harvard College, June 7, 1853. 
"Reverend and Dear Sir: — 

" In behalf of the Undergraduates, we respectfully request the 
publication of your Inaugural Address. 

" The earnest tone that pervaded it convinces us that you have 
the interest of the University near at heart, and that your Presi- 
dency will be a source of great prosperity to Harvard. 
" Yours, with high respect and esteem, 

" C. Fred. Livermore, Theodore Lybian, 
W. I. Shreve, Langdon Erving, 

Edw. Graham Daves, Chas. T. Howard, 
Geo. W. Soren, Richard A. Barret. 

Geo. E. Dana, 
" To President Walker." 

" Cambridge, June 9, 1853. 
" Gentlemen : — 

" I thank you for your obliging note, requesting, in behalf of 
the Undergraduates, the publication of my Inaugural Discourse. 
1 hasten to reply, that the printing of my Discourse is no longer at 

2 



10 



my disposal, as the Corporation have voted to publish the usual 
pamphlet on the occasion, including some account of the pro- 
ceedings, and all the Addresses. 

" I am, very truly and affectionately, 

" Your sincere and obliged friend, 

" James Walker. 

" To Messrs. C. F. Livermore, etc." 

It is in place to mention, in this connection, that on the 
morning of the day of inauguration the Senior Class waited in 
procession upon Mrs. Sparks and Mrs. Walker, and presented 
bouquets to them. Shortly after, they were accompanied by 
President Walker to the grounds near the southwest corner of 
Gore Hall, where a tree was planted in honor of the occasion. 
The tree selected was a fine Norwegian spruce, furnished by 
Dr. Gray from the College Botanic Garden. To a brief ad- 
dress by the Marshal in behalf of his Class, the President re- 
plied, hoping that the young men before him, like the tree they 
were planting, would not only live but grow, and then threw 
in the first shovelful of earth. This simple ceremony, while 
the Class stood round with uncovered heads, was interesting 
and significant. 

For the Committee, 

JOSEPH LOVERING. 

Cambridge, June, 1853. 



A D D K E S S 



OF 



HIS EXCELLENCY, JOHN H. CLIFFORD, 

GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 



AND 



REPLY 



OF 



PRESIDENT WALKER. 



ADDRESS 



Reverend Sir, — The simple and unostentatious 
ceremony which we have assembled here to-day to 
witness and to perform, is fraught with a significant 
and impressive interest. 

In confiding to your care and guardianship this ven- 
erable institution, consecrated by our fathers to Christ 
and his Church, we seal and sanction, by these public 
solemnities, your formal assumption of a trust that 
may well task, to their utmost capacities, " the wisdom 
of the wisest, and the virtues of the best" of men. 

The imperial purple, the regal crown, the judicial 
ermine, or whatsoever other outward badges of au- 
thority distinguish the ruler or magistrate, are the 
symbols of no mightier power, of no more august re- 
sponsibilities, than are assumed by him to whom is 
intrusted the moral and intellectual training of the 
youth of a country, " the expectancy and rose of the 
fair State," in an institution like this. 

I am too conscious that the part assigned to me 
in these proceedings is owing only to the circum- 
stance of my ofiicial position, not to feel that it would 
be presumptuous in me to prescribe rules for your 



u 



guidance in those duties which you have undertaken 
to perform, and the nature and extent of which no 
one can understand more clearly or appreciate more 
justly than yourself 

But I should fail in my own duty to the Common- 
wealth, whose interest in the welfare and prosperity 
of this ancient seat of learning can scarcely be exag- 
gerated, if I did not give expression to some of the 
just expectations with which your entrance upon this 
high office is accompanied, and welcomed. An act 
of the present Legislature, to which I have recently 
had the satisfaction of affixing my official signature, 
has given to the State a more immediate and direct 
interest in the conduct and condition of our colleges 
than has ever before attached to them. I refer to 
the act establishing State scholarships, — by which 
provision is made for extending the elementary in- 
struction of our common schools to the highest 
range of intellectual culture that those colleges can 
furnish ; so that the humblest and poorest of our 
citizens are assured of as thorough an education for 
those who are the best endowed and most meritori- 
ous among their sons, as if they enjoyed all the 
means and opportunities of wealth ; — an act of le- 
gislation, among the noblest that Massachusetts has 
ever placed upon her statute-book ; the provisions 
of which deserve to be recorded in letters of gold, as 
their results will be written in letters of light upon 
the character and condition of our people, when time 
shall have fully developed them. 

In welcoming you. Sir, to the tasks and the re- 



15 



wards of a new position, it is a source of special 
gratification, that I am addressing one who has 
shown himself so deeply imbued with the spirit of 
integrity, wisdom, and the love of truth, which ani- 
mated our fathers, and which was the better portion 
of their legacy to us ; one who has proved, by his 
successful labors in a kindred office, his eminent 
qualifications for the more anxious and arduous toil 
of the position you are now to assume. The great 
influence you have ever been able personally to exert 
over the minds of your pupils, as well in their moral 
as in their intellectual training, we trust will not be 
lost or relaxed in the new sphere of duty in which 
you are to move; but that, aided and strengthened 
by the earnest and cordial cooperation of your asso- 
ciates in the government of the College, you will 
continue to apply yourself to the establishing and 
fostering of those principles of Christian morality, 
without which education itself is only a calamity and 
a curse ; in the absence of which, increasing knowl- 
edge is but increasing mischief, and intellectual light 
becomes moral darkness. 

If there is any source of solicitude more fruitful of 
anxieties and misgivings to the parental heart, or any 
season of trial more perilous to the objects of that 
solicitude than all others that are encountered in 
this world's experience, it is the change to which 
our youth are exposed, from the salutary discipline 
and vigilant guardianship of home, to the compara- 
tive freedom of college life. And if there is any 
duty resting upon the government of these institu- 
tions, paramount to all others, it is that the young 



16 



who resort to them shall find, on the part of those 
to whose guidance and authority they are intrusted 
during the most critical period of their lives, some 
compensating watchfulness and wisdom, to stand in 
the place of a father's counsels and a mother's love. 
We look to you, Sir, with an undoubting trust, that, 
in this most important department of your duties, 
every reasonable expectation that is entertained of 
our ancient University will be fully realized. 

We doubt not, also, that your influence will be 
given to every judicious effort to raise and sustain 
the standard of intellectual culture, upon which the 
reputation and usefulness of such an institution must 
greatly depend, and to which Harvard has already so 
largely contributed. In this age of unprecedented 
activity in every sphere of human effort and enter- 
prise, the community at large has become fully per- 
suaded of the necessity of education in many differ- 
ent directions and departments, and will no longer 
be content with that preliminary and general culti- 
vation of the minds of the young, which was once 
dignified with the name of a " liberal education." 
Instead of being finished, it is now more common, 
and more just, to regard a young man's education as 
only commenced, when he has completed his pre- 
paratory term of college life. While, therefore, I 
would earnestly commend to you, as the objects of 
your chief interest and care, those who are in this 
most critical and important period of their career, 
let me also invoke your encouragement of those 
severer and more directly practical studies, which 
are pursued in the advanced schools placed under 



IT 



the general charge of the Corporation. The public 
have witnessed with great satisfaction the increasing 
facilities and opportunities which, from time to time, 
have been afforded for the prosecution of those 
studies, in the immediate results of which the whole 
community has the deepest and most direct interest. 
That comprehensive law which governs the world of 
trade and commerce, that the supply must be pro- 
portioned to the demand, cannot be excluded from 
the domain of education. Its jurisdiction is as uni- 
versal as the operations of nature or the enterprises 
of man. Its influence is already felt, in the more 
ample and generous means which are here furnished, 
for higher attainments in that noble science, on the 
full comprehension of which, not only personal 
rights and the rights of property, but the security 
of public liberty and public order, so vitally depend ; 
for the acquisition of a more exact and enlarged 
knowledge of those laws, by the observance of which 
alone a sound mind can be retained in a sound body ; 
and for those extended researches in the various 
departments of natural science, the thorough and 
persevering prosecution of which is advancing in so 
great a degree the true progress of the country in 
all its internal and external relations. These will 
all come under your general supervision, and will not 
fail, I trust, to receive a just proportion of your 
fostering care. 

It is not, however, merely positive knowledge that 
we seek in education ; nor is its communication to 
his pupils the highest province of the teacher. The 
3 



18 



successive classes of young men, who are to throng 
these halls, and who will receive an impress from 
your hands which all the after years of life will not 
obliterate, can only obtain here that true education 
which it is the object of the College in all its depart- 
ments to give, by a sedulous exercise and discipline 
of all their moral and intellectual powers. I need 
not remind you. Sir, or your associates, that those 
who are to compose this long procession — whose 
march, we trust, may never be stayed or interrupted 
— will bear with them hither the precious hopes of 
many a parental heart, and that the light of many a 
home is destined to be extinguished or kindled into 
new brightness by their success or failure here. 

It is with a cheerful and well-grounded confidence 
that we commit them to your care ; looking forward 
to a new career of prosperity for the University, 
under the fresh impulse it will receive from the con- 
scientious devotion of your talents and influence to 
its growth and success. 

And congratulating you. Sir, upon the greater op- 
portunities of usefulness you will possess, I now 
place under your charge this ancient Charter, " the 
ample page of knowledge to unroll," which for more 
than two centuries has given a beneficent power to 
your predecessors ; with this Seal, whose impress, I 
feel assured, will never, by your hand, be made the 
witness or verification of any act unworthy of this 
noble institution ; and these Keys, whose solidity 
and polish are fit emblems of the strength and beau- 
ty of those intellectual treasures it will be your privi- 
lege to unlock. 



REPLY. 



May it please your Excellency : — 

I ACCEPT these symbols of a sacred trust with emo- 
tions which I find it difficult to reconcile or express. 
I will not affect to be indifferent to the honor of 
being called to fill such a place, and to succeed such 
men. But I also know the difficulties and perplex- 
ities which await me. I have listened — we all have 
listened — to what your Excellency has said, with such 
just and fervid eloquence, of the dignity and respon- 
sibilities of the teacher ; of the need there is that 
education should be improved and extended in order 
to meet the advancing wants of the age, and above 
all, that the whole should be touched by Christian 
influences ; but this only makes me feel my incompe- 
tency the more. 

It is too late, however, now, to dwell on discour- 
agements. I am glad to know that I live in the 
midst of a community, and under the shadow of a 
Commonwealth, where every well-meant effort in the 
right direction will be welcomed, and candidly and 
generously appreciated. In the hope that my po- 
sition will enable me to do something to quicken and 



20 



mould minds, which are hereafter to exert a control- 
ling influence in Church and State, — in the hope that 
I may succeed in doing something, however little, for 
the consecration of the genius and learning of this 
country, — I also find the strongest motive to ani- 
mate my endeavors. And I have another dependence, 
without which all else is empty and vain : I am to 
live and act in that mysterious and awful Presence, 
whose strength will be manifested in my weakness, if 
I have the grace to seek it in the spirit of faith and 
of prayer. 



LATIN ORATION, 



CHARLES CARROLL, 



OF THE 



SENIOR CLASS 



ORATIO 



More antiquo hodie in hunc locum convenimus ut 
munere duplici fungamur. Nam primum vir ille 
clarissimus doctissimusque, quinetiam nobis omnibus 
carissimus, qui quatuor jam annos rebus nostris prae- 
fuit, — is igitur nobis est hodie cura exsolvendus ; 
contra autem alterum, pari fama atque doctrina, nobis 
profecto baud minus exspectatum, Praesidem atque 
Patrem debemus salutare. Magna est hujusce mu- 
neris gravitas. Hie enim qui jam claves ceteraque 
honoris insignia accepit, omnibus posthac hujus loci 
studiis et exercitationibus praesidere debebit. Non 
solum discipulos ipse litterarum disciplina exercebit, 
sed etiam, ut olim gymnasiarchi illi, quae ad com- 
modum spectent vel magistrorum vel discipulorum 
omnino curabit. Nonne igitur valde opus erit ut hie 
quam maxime sit constans, strenuus, omnino denique 
probus sapiensque 1 Quid solennium nostrorum 
quam hocce quod nunc agimus vel gravius vel au- 
gustius putemus 1 

At non solum gravitas officii memoranda esse vide- 
tur, sed etiam loci dignitas et convenientia. Hie 
enim multos per annos discipuli nostri, ad gradus 



24 



academicos perducti, Almae Matri triste illud ac 
longum " vale " dicere solent ; quorum quam multi 
olim in laudem et auctoritatetn, suo quisque in 
genere, pervenerint, baud cuiquam nostrum ignotum 
esse arbitror. Oratores quoque et poetae, omni 
venustate ac facundia ornati, clarissimi denique qui 
in bis regionibus reperiri potuerunt, sermonibus 
quotannis in hoc loco babitis maximam laudem con- 
secuti sunt. Quare equidem mibi non alium locum 
videor patriae nostrae recordari litterarum dignitate 
ac laude insigniorem. 

Sed etiamsi abesset loco omnis bujusmodi dignitas, 
tamen certe eam non desideraremus quum tantum 
nobis faventium consessum videremus. Magnam 
conspicimus frequentiam, non solum eorum qui bic 
quondam instituti Almam Matrem nobiscum commu- 
nem babent, sed etiam aliorum, elegantium docto- 
rumque, qui aliis quidem scbolis instituti, tamen banc 
nostram prope ut matrem alteram diligunt atque ob- 
servant. Nos quidem, qui adbuc studiis implicati 
intra portions et nemora Academiae nostrae libenter 
moramur, gratias vobis vebementer agimus. Non 
enim, mebercle, penetralibus nostris longe abditi, in 
nostras modo res incumbimus, laude apud sodales 
nostros comparata contenti, omnino famae, auctorita- 
tis, laudis externae incuriosi. Quod tantum abest 
ut verum sit, semper vestrum aditum sermonemque 
colimus, sententias vestras captamus ; si nos juvatis 
baud ingrati sumus; si quid consilii offertis reve- 
renter accipimus ; affligimur reprehensione vestra, 
laude magnopere efFerimur atque gaudemus. 



25 



Sed quum vobis, viri docti et honesti, gratias per- 
niagnas agere debeamus, turn baud scio an huic 
illustri ingenuarum ac formosarum frequentiae sint 
etiam majores persolvendae. Yos enim plerumque, 
ut hie adessetis, pietate aliqua vel desiderio impulsi 
estis, — notas hasce sedes revisendi studio, vel juven- 
tutis annos in memoriam revocandi ; ita ut vestra 
ipsorum quoque ut hie adsitis quodammodo videatur 
interesse. His autem nulla hujusmodi pietas vel re- 
cordatio. Benevolentia, ergo, in nos, vel potius in 
omnes bonas artes ae disciplinas, benignitate sola 
atque sincera hue adductae sunt. O nos fortunatos, 
qui omni quod in hac regione vel formosi, vel ve- 
nusti, vel suavis inveniri potest concionem nostram 
ornatam videamus. Qui tandem oratores, qui phi- 
losophi, qui magistratus corona unquam insigniore 
sunt honorati 1 

Sunt his temporibus multi, boni illi quidem for- 
tasse atque justi, non tamen satis aeuti, qui hane 
nostram ceterasque ejusmodi scholas semper repre- 
hendunt et insectantur. Studia nostra ii vel damno- 
sa vel certe inutilia esse putant. Discipulos nostros 
aiunt diffieiles, segnes, somniantes evadere ; vel 
si doctrinae aliquantulum nobis coneedant, tamen 
certe ad negotia nos parum aptos existimant. Quo- 
rum sententiae et auetoritas tantum apud plerosque 
valent ut major fortasse pars civitatis nostrae ab 
hujusmodi seholis vel fere vel plane sit aliena, 
cum credat viros illos bonos et illustres qui omni 
aetate vitam ae soeietatem humanam artibus, litteris, 
institutis auxerunt disciplinae in seholis aceeptae 
4 



26 



plerosque fiiisse expertes. Quae sententiae certe, ut 
modeste loquar, ab universarum rerum historia dis- 
crepant. Etenim ut exempla proferam ex rebus per- 
antiquis, — nonne Graeci illi philosophi, Aristoteles 
et Plato, litterarum disciplina accuratissima instructi 
sunt? Quid de eorum scholis dicam ac disciplinis, 
quae in omni philosopbia atque artibus maximam 
vim usque ad hunc diem babent? Jam ut saecula 
insequentia praeteream, ex bis ipsis temporibus 
exempla capiamus eorum qui quum docti sapientes- 
que tum etiam prudentes fuerunt, qui in litteras 
iidemque in negotia incubuerunt. Nam paucis his 
annis mortuus est " rerum Romanarum florentissi- 
mus auctor," lumen Germaniae, qui quum in Unguis 
et historia longe eruditissimus fuerit, tum etiam in 
omnibus publicis negotiis maxime fuit strenuus 
atque prudens. Quid autem de viro illo dicam inter 
Britannos historia doctissimo, qui etiam inter argen- 
tariam faciendam, dum usuram sane et fenus et syn- 
graphas quotidie tractat, tamen in rebus Graecis 
componendis assidue versatur'? Sed quid ego per 
alia tempora vel alias civitates exempla conquiram ? 
Nonne hie inter nos ipsos virum ilium amplissimum 
videmus, qui fere prima juventute ab Alma Matre no- 
stra praecipuis auctus honoribus, — insequenti aetate 
laudem singularem litterarum et eloquentiae conse- 
cutus, — deinde negotiis ac magistratibus in foro et 
in curia et domi et foris bene actis, quum in civitate 
honores permultos acceperit tum denique ad dignita- 
tem pervenit paene supremam "? 

At longum est omnia hujusmodi memorare. Pru- 



27 



dentissimo cuiqiie patet, ut uno verbo dicam, ratio- 
nem ac disciplinam hujus nostrae et ceterarum ejus- 
modi Academiarum bonis universis artibus, quinetiam. 
negotiis, non modo non repugnare, sed etiam, si modo 
rite utamur, magnopere prodesse. 

Quare viris illis illustribus qui olim Academiae 
nostrae praefuerunt gratias ego existimo hodie solen- 
niter ac publice agendas. 

Jam primum senem ilium eloquentem et augu- 
stum, qui plus quindecim annos quondam res nostras 
assidue curavit, nos reverenter salvere jubemus. 
Fortunati sane nos adolescentes sumus quibus senes 
tam venerabiles hodie liceat salutare. 

Proximum ilium, qui jam curiam ac senatum reli- 
quit ut iVlmae Matris solennia pie observaret, mihi 
quidem uni salutandum non existimo. Ad vos ille, 
cives, amicos, fautores sues respiciat. Ego quidem 
honores ejus jam memoravi; nunc vestri demum 
vultus et voces et plausus dignissimam ei habent 
gratulationem. 

At te, vir venerande, qui hodie curam nostrarum 
rerum solenniter deponis, — te et salvere et valere 
jubemus. Breve profecto tempus apud nos commo- 
ratus es. At scio equidem nobis non querendum 
esse, vel certe baud murmurandum. Etenim munus 
istud beneficiumque quod Academiae nostrae ut 
Praeses ejus attulisti, quamvis sit gravissimum, ta- 
men cetera ista vix adaequare potest quae multos per 
annos Uteris non solum patriae nostrae praestas sed 
etiam universis. Itaque eo aequiore animo te nunc 
exsolvere possumus, quod scimus te quanto majore 



28 



opera atque cura, nostra causa suscepta, hodierno die 
leveris, tanto majorem continuo collaturum esse in 
litteras atque annales patriae nostrae illustrandos. 
Neque tu, credo, visum tuum aditumque a nobis 
plane amovebis. Tu his in sedibus usque versaberis, 
tuas virtutes nobis conspicere atque imitari, sermone 
ac sapientia tua perfrui licebit. Quum tu igitur pla- 
cide ita et honeste inter nos versaberis, profecto beatis- 
simus eris, ut qui magno illo et insigni bono fruaris, 
senectute erudita, et utili, et sancta et honorata. 

Te nunc, Princeps sanctissime, nos omnes qui hie 
adsumus, vel una voce, singulari laetitia atque gau- 
dio iterum ac saepius salvere jubemus. O Matrem 
nostram felicem, quae inter filios sues semper clarissi- 
mos habeat ad ipsius utilitatem paratos. Tu prima 
adolescentia praemiis maximis honoris ab Alma Ma- 
tre affectus es ; deinde multos post annos ad eam re- 
versus vitam ei operamque dicasti. Nunc omni- 
bus rogantibus obsecutus es ut priore loco dece- 
dens in istam dignitatem ascenderes altiorem. Nemo 
sane, multis his annis, auspiciis insignioribus dignita- 
tem istam suscepit. Quid enim ea quae omnibus 
bene nota sunt commemorem 1 Quid quae ipse ser- 
mone audivi eorum qui prioribus annis te amicum 
fidelem, vel magistrum eruditum, vel pastorem sanc- 
tissimum habuerunf? Non est quod faciam; quin 
hie illustris faventium conventus, singularis ilia 
omnium consensio atque laetitia quod tu in honorem 
istum arcessitus es, horum denique ora et gestus et 
voces, haec inquam declarant quam vehemens in te 
sit omnium spes et caritas et fiducia. Quam Mem 



-«■ 



29 



tu, obsecro, ne destituas. Vide enim quam grave 
munus susceperis. Fidei tuae posthac flos juventutis 
nostrae, etiam spes civitatis, mandabitur. Hie ado- 
leseentes ii instituendi sunt qui annis insequentibus 
in litteris, moribus, negotiis omnibus hujus eivitatis 
vel maximam vim sine dubio habebunt. Fac igitur 
ut illi quam maxime sint fortes, probi, sapientes. 
Quod si rite feceris, nomen tuum atque fama non 
solum in nostrum sed etiam in omne tempus semper 
crescente honore celebrari debebit. 



INAUGURAL ADDEE8S, 



PRESIDENT WALKER 



ADDEE S S. 



The symbolic parts of this formal and public in- 
duction to office remind us of other days. From the 
earliest times, the chief magistrate of the Colony, 
and afterwards of the State, has consented to be 
present on these occasions, to transfer the charter and 
keys and seal of the College to the person whom 
the proper authorities had appointed to that trust. 
He is understood as representing here this ancient 
Commonwealth, and representing her in that char- 
acter under which she has won the highest distinc- 
tion and renown ; I mean, as the friend and patron 
of learning, and the guardian of its rights. 

What most distinguishes the early settlers of Mas- 
sachusetts, is the interest and care they took in edu- 
cation, and especially in the institution of a system 
of common schools, to be sustained at the public 
charge. Here they were first. In other things they 
thought wisely, and acted nobly; but in this, and 
perhaps in this alone, they were original. Honor, 
immortal honor, to the men who, while still strug- 
gling for a scanty and bare subsistence, could yet 
find the means and the heart to do what had never 
5 



34 



been done or attempted before ; placing the advan- 
tages of a competent instruction within the reach of 
all. By taking this course, what a noble confidence 
they manifested in the truth of their principles, and 
in the justice of their measures ! nay, they thus 
showed that the only ground of their attachment 
to their principles and measures was the belief that 
they were true and just, and would bear the light. 

But the founders and early settlers of Massachu- 
setts did not limit their views of education to com- 
mon schools. Many of their leading men had studied 
at the English Universities, and were imbued with, 
or at least could appreciate, the highest scholarship 
of that day. They also knew, on general grounds 
and as practical men, that the public good requires 
the advancement, as well as the diffusion^ of knowl- 
edge ; in short, that both must go together ; that the 
streams will soon cease, if the fountains fail. 

A glance at well-known facts in the history of our 
own College will show that the attention of the 
colonists was turned to the necessity of classical and 
professional instruction first of all. One of the ear- 
liest accounts of the settlement, prepared by persons 
who had themselves been witnesses and actors in the 
scene, contains this familiar but memorable record : 
" After God had carried us safe to New England, and 
we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for 
our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's 
worship, and settled the civil government, one of the 
next things we longed for and looked after was to 
advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity ; 



35 



dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the church- 
es, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." * 
Accordingly, in 1636, only seven years after Higgin- 
son had landed at Salem with the charter, and morQ> 
than ten years before the act for the establishment 
of free schools, the General Court passed an order 
agreeing " to give four hundred pounds towards a 
school or college," whereof two hundred pounds 
were to be paid the next year, and two hundred 
pounds when the work was finished. But the colo- 
nial government, with the best intentions, was not in 
a condition to do any thing whatever to give effect 
to this purpose. In 1638, John Harvard died, be- 
queathing seven hundred pounds, and his entire li- 
brary, to the above-mentioned object. This oppor- 
tune, and in the circumstances even munificent gift, 
was welcomed as a providential interposition ; the 
giver was regarded at the time as being, in the words 
of the old tract just referred to, " the first founder " 
of the institution ; and hence, as it is expressly said, 
the institution itself was called after his name. Still 
the Colony continued to look upon the College as its 
ward, and in some respects as its foster-child, and 
favored and nourished it, as its own straitened means 
would allow. 

Under countenance of the State, but chiefly by the " 
liberal benefaction of individuals, the College has 
grown up to be what it is. And now, at the inaugu- 
ration of its nineteenth President, the question natu- 

* New England's First Fruits, London, 1643, p. 12. 



36 



rally arises, whether the public considerations which 
led our fathers to found this College do not still 
exist, only with added force, for its encouragement 
^nd support. 

My answer to this question will take the form of 
a plea, not for this College alone, but for all colleges, 
and especially for those in this country. I do not 
enter upon it in a tone of complaint, or even of dis- 
trust. I do not mean to imply, by any thing which I 
am going to say, that the community in which we 
live takes no interest in these institutions, or that it 
is wanting in a disposition to support them, and 
even, as new wants are developed, to improve and 
extend them. If I were inclined to take this ground 
anywhere, it would not be here; for we are sur- 
rounded by monuments which prove the contrary. 
Even here, however, it seems to me that the advocacy 
of colleges is often put on a false, or at least on too 
narrow a basis. An impression prevails, at least 
in some quarters, that what is done for common 
schools is done for the public ; while what is done 
for colleges is done, at best, for learning and learned 
men. The State is often hindered, I believe, from 
legislating in favor of colleges by an opinion hastily 
formed, that it would not be to legislate for the pub- 
lic, but for a class. I hope to be able to show, that 
this opinion is without any solid foundation ; that 
it originates in certain popular mistakes and fallacies, 
which it will not be difficult to expose ; that every 
man and woman and child in the country has a sub- 
stantial interest in the prosperity of these institu- 



37 



tions ; that, from their first establishment in the 
Middle Ages to the present hour, they have consti- 
tuted one of the most active and eff'ective of the 
democratic elements of society ; and consequently, 
that it ill becomes a people who have placed them- 
selves at the head of the great democratic movement 
of modern times, to suffer these institutions to de- 
cline, or to become so expensive for want of public 
aid as to exclude all but the rich from their ad- 
vantages. 

I suppose I may begin by taking it for granted, 
that a thoroughly educated man is a great public 
blessing. Here and there an individual is to be met 
with who still counts the disparities of genius and 
learning among the difficulties in Providence ; as if 
the bestowment of genius and learning were a kind 
of favoritism. But this is to forget that to increase 
knowledge is not the same thing as to increase hap- 
piness ; on the contrary, if we may believe the He- 
brew sage, it is to increase sorrow. When God 
raises up a Sir Isaac Newton, it is not that he may 
make Sir Isaac Newton any better or any happier 
than other men ; if he happens to be so, it is from 
causes which are open to others as well as to him. 
Sir Isaac Newton lives that all men may be benefited 
by his discoveries ; the instrument is one, the bless- 
ing is manifold and universal. 

Perhaps it will be said, that the public benefactor is 
not he who discovers a new and important principle, 
but he who applies it, who introduces it into com- 
mon practice, and so makes it the property or privi- 
lege of all. 



X 



38 



I have neither space nor disposition to reopen 
here the vexed question between the scholar and the 
practical man, which contributes most to human 
progress. Both are necessary. Sometimes, indeed, 
both happily concur in the same person, and then 
we have not merely the skilful artisan, but the great 
artist ; not merely the adroit and successful politician, 
but the great statesman. One thing, however, is 
plain ; principles must be discovered before they can 
be applied. Moreover, the cases are extremely rare 
of important discoveries, even in the social sciences, 
which are struck out in the collisions of active life ; 
they almost always come as the reward of patient 
and solitary study. Adam Smith's " Inquiry into the 
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," is 
one of the four works named by Sir James Mackin- 
tosh as having " most directly influenced the general 
opinion of Europe during the last two centuries." 
Yet Adam Smith was a solitary thinker, a mere 
scholar, and what is w^orse, in the opinion of some, a 
professor too. To show how little he sympathized 
with practical men, and how little the practical men 
of his day sympathized with him, it is enough to say, 
that Pitt could not understand him, and that Fox 
would not take the trouble to read him. This was 
true, not more than fifty years ago, of speculations, 
many of which have now become as household words. 
In short, nothing better illustrates the influence of 
pure speculation on the prevailing habits of thought, 
and the material interests of the community, than 
the whole history of political economy. What has 



39 



been done is simply this. Thinking men first in- 
formed their own minds by earnest and patient study 
on the matters calling for change. They then pub- 
lished to the world the results ; the conclusions, and 
the reasons on which the conclusions were founded. 
The world read. It saw, it could not help seeing, 
wherein it had erred, and that it had erred, moreover, 
to its own wrong and hurt. The light found its way 
gradually among the people, into the text-books of 
the common schools, into the education of the com- 
mon mind. Thus what is a great discovery made by 
scholars and scientific men in one age, becomes the 
common sense of the age that follows. 

But again it may be objected, that all these things 
can be gained, and have been gained, without the 
help of colleges. The greatest inventors in the use- 
ful arts, not a few of the greatest geniuses in science 
and literature, some of our ablest and most renowned 
public men, were not brought up in colleges. Frank- 
lin, Bowditch, Shakspeare, who stands alone, and 
Washington, another who stands alone, — these, and 
a thousand others who have been lights and guides 
of the world, w^ere not brought up in colleges. 
They were what are called self-educated men, — self- 
made, self-taught. 

Without meaning to derogate, in the smallest de- 
gree, from the merits or the actual attainments of 
such' men, without meaning to question that their 
merits were greater in proportion as their advantages 
were less, I cannot help observing that these terms, 
self-educated^ self-made, self-taught, are vague and 



40 



loose expressions, which can hardly be interpreted to 
the letter. How can a man teach himself what he 
does not already knowl Strictly speaking, nobody 
is self-educated, self-made, self-taught. We are all 
born into a state of entire dependence on others : it 
is from others that we learn, not only how to read 
and write, but also how to speak, how to think, how 
to walk. Home is a school ; the church is a school ; 
society is a school. Hence there is not a so-called 
self-educated, self-made, self-taught man among them 
all, who does not owe much the largest part of what 
he knows or believes to the teaching of others. The 
only real distinction between men in this respect 
would seem to be, that some have better teachers 
than others, and have them longer. 

The principal recommendation of the self-made 
scholar is, that he has to exert his own mind in every 
step he takes, and this can hardly fail to improve 
his mind. But the same must also be true of the 
pupil of the best teachers, if he aspires to eminence. 
The object aimed at in a university education is not 
to lessen the amount of intellectual labor, but to 
make that labor more effective. The earnest and 
ambitious student is supplied with the best facilities 
for thoroughly mastering what is already known in 
a particular department, in order that, with the same 
amount of labor, he may be able to reach, much 
sooner than he otherwise would, the existing boun- 
dary of human discovery in that direction, and so 
be in a condition, while yet in the prime of life, to 
enter upon really original investigations. Besides, 



41 



we are not now speaking of what is good for tlie in- 
dividual, for his self-improvement, but of what is 
good for the public. The public gains nothing di- 
rectly from having the same truths re-discovered, or 
the same processes re-invented, over and over again. 
What adds to the intellectual wealth of the com- 
munity, and ultimately to its progress in other re- 
spects, is the actual enlargement of the boundaries 
of human knowledge. Hence the public good re- 
quires that the acquisition of what is already known 
should be simplified and expedited by the help of 
books and the living teacher ; a necessity which 
must be more and more felt, because the progress of 
science is continually lengthening the way to be gone 
over, before the point of proper original discovery is 
reached. 

There are also two other advantages incidental to 
a collegiate education, compared with private or self- 
education, which are of public importance. In the 
first place, the habit of measuring one's self with 
equals, and looking up to teachers, begets a spirit of 
concession and deference. Who, in reading the lives 
of great men, has never been struck with the tender 
respect, the almost filial regard, with which they are 
accustomed to look back on some favorite teacher, 
speaking of him, and bearing themselves in his pres- 
ence, to the last, as if the old relation were, for the 
moment, renewed, and they were his pupils still. 
Men of a timid or morbid nature, like Cowper, may 
complain and lament over the rudenesses, the cruelties, 
and other and not unfrequent abuses, pertaining to 
6 



42 



the society of students collected together in large 
numbers. To such natures, such society may not be 
well suited; but to the majority of minds it is found 
to be a most effectual antidote to infirmities and vices 
which infest the wealthy and educated classes ; such 
as effeminacy, affectation, and self-conceit. Though 
there are pedants and charlatans in plenty, it is 
a mistake to suppose that colleges make them ; on 
the contrary, they do more than all other causes put 
together to unmake them. In colleges themselves, 
this sort of pretence cannot live under the storm of 
merciless ridicule it incurs. And this is not all. By 
multiplying the number of really learned men, and 
thus elevating the standard of public opinion, col- 
leges make it less and less possible for the mere pre- 
tender to escape public exposure and contempt. 

Another favorable circumstance pertaining to a 
liberal and systematic education is, that the student 
is neither expected nor tempted to make up his mind 
definitively on any particular subject, much less to 
commit himself to it, or act upon it, until he has 
completed his survey of the whole field of human 
knowledge. Of course this survey must be general, 
and in parts quite superficial, but sufficient, never- 
theless, to secure a deliberation and breadth of view 
which will do much to save him from hasty and one- 
sided judgments. To this we are to look, as it seems 
to me, for one of the best correctives of an evil which 
threatens the order and stability, I might almost say, 
the very existence, of modern society. I am no 
alarmist ; still, I suppose all will agree that the 



43 



boasted civilization of the nineteenth century is be- 
ginning to run out into follies and extravagances, 
which, to say the least, were not expected. Crude 
and sometimes noxious theories in science, politics, 
and religion, schemes of reform which unsettle every 
thing and settle nothing, popular beliefs every whit 
as absurd as witchcraft, and not supported by half 
so much testimony, and which, fifty years ago, would 
not have been able to obtain even so much as a hear- 
ing, are now agitating the community everywhere. 
And why? We must not think to trace this state 
of things to mere ignorance on the part of the peo- 
ple ; for mere ignorance is slow and dull to all 
changes, whether for the better or the worse. And 
besides, the primary education of the people was 
never attended to more generally or more successfully 
than now ; nay, never so generally or so successfully. 
And even as regards the leaders of the people, who 
are chiefly responsible for these erratic movements, it 
is not necessary to question their natural ability even 
as leaders, nor, for the most part, their good inten- 
tions. They have probably thought a great deal on 
the question at issue, and understand it perhaps in 
some of its bearings better than most persons ; their 
error consists in refusing or neglecting to consider 
it in all its bearings. Very probably they have a 
natural and just sense of the evil to be removed, but 
their defect consists in this : they do not comprehend 
the magnitude of the difficulty ; they have not a full 
view of all that relates to the question. Though 
not, perhaps, deficient in sense, they want what Locke 



44 



calls " large, sound, round-about sense " ; as a means 
of obtaining whicb, tbey also need a " large, sound, 
round-about " education. 

The radical difficulty in modern society may be 
expressed, as it seems to me, in two words, — intel- 
lectual anarchy ; a difficulty not likely to be over- 
come or essentially reduced by merely attending to 
and improving common schools. Indeed, there is 
doubtless a sense in w^hich it may be said that the 
favor and success of common schools have contributed 
to the anarchy here complained of, and furnished the 
best reason and excuse for it, by lessening the differ- 
ence between common education, which is the prop- 
erty and the right of all, and the highest education, 
which, in the nature of things, is accessible to but 
few. Some are so convinced of this, and withal so 
alarmed at the tendency of events, as to be more 
than half inclined to wish back the good old times 
when the multitude were content to believe as they 
were told, and do as they were bid. But, thanks to 
God, this will not, cannot be ; neither is it necessary 
as a means of restoring a proper order and subordi- 
nation in the intellectual world. Extend and im- 
prove common schools to the utmost : it is a neces- 
sary condition of self-government ; it is the sole 
guaranty of popular liberty ; constituted as modern 
society is, it may almost be said to mark the distinc- 
tion between a standing and a falling commonwealth ; 
it is the last hope of mankind ; and no evil, no in- 
convenience, will grow out of it, provided only that 
you at the same time attend to and improve colleges 



45 



and universities in the same proportion. Then the 
difference between common education and scientific 
and professional education will remain as great as 
ever, which is all that is required ; for it is on this 
recognized and felt superiority, that all legitimate, all 
true authority is built. 

The learned professions complain, that they are 
gradually losing their just proportion of influence 
over the public mind ; not merely on general subjects, 
but also on those to which they are specially devoted. 
To a certain extent this is probably true ; but what 
is the remedy '? Influence is not a thing to be had 
for asking, or sued for as a charity, or enforced as a 
matter of police ; homage, to be real, must be spon- 
taneous. And here I hardly need say, that the peo- 
ple have no interest in being misled* If they folloAv 
false lights, it must be because the true lights do not 
shine out so clearly and distinctly, but that honest 
minds may mistake one for the other. Let the true 
lights shine out more clearly and distinctly ; there is 
no other way. If the learned professions are ever 
to regain their ascendency, each in its appropriate 
sphere, it will not be by the spell of names or forms, 
nor yet by that of caste or social position ; it will be 
by obvious and incontestable evidence of superiority. 
I do not mean the superiority of a few individuals in 
each profession ; this is an end which is sufficiently 
secured by natural genius, and what is called self- 
culture : the profession itself must be raised, which 
can only be done by raising the standard of profes- 
sional education. 



46 



In saying this, I do but say what the heads of all 
the professions feel and acknowledge. Everywhere 
they are awake to the public need ; nay, more, are 
doing what they can to supply it. Considerate men of 
all parties are beginning to see, that a wise conser- 
vatism and a wise reform go together. If we would 
keep things as they are, if we would retain the old 
adjustments of society, we must not only accept, but 
provide for, those changes which the progress of 
societv demands. In order to maintain the natural 
and necessary balance among the great social agen- 
cies, if we would go back in some things, we must 
go back in all ; if we would go forward in some 
things, we must go forward in all. And hence it 
follows, that the impulse which has been given, and 
so nobly given, to primary education, only makes it 
the more indispensable as a condition of social order, 
and even as a matter of pure conservatism, that a 
corresponding impulse should be given to secondary 
or higher education. 

But the question will here be raised. Are colleges 
and universities the fittest places for the acquisition 
of this secondary and higher education ? 

What are colleges and universities'? I purposely 
waive the logomachy as to the proper and distinct 
meaning and application of these terms ; partly be- 
cause it has nothing to do with my argument, and 
partly because it is not likely to lead to any definitive 
or satisfactory results. Use, reputable use, and not 
reason or consistency, determines, for the most part, 
how words are to be understood ; and reputable use, in 



47 



this case as in many others, varies in diiferent coun- 
tries. University has one signification in Germany 
and Scotland ; another in England ; and still another 
in France. In this country, also, the ambiguity has 
been still further complicated by an accident of his- 
tory. Our oldest colleges, in the beginning, were 
nothing but colleges in the most limited sense of 
that term, and therefore were so denominated. Some 
of them, however, when considered in connection 
with their scientific and professional schools, have 
grown into a resemblance to the German and Scotch 
universities, but still prefer to retain the old name ; 
while, on the other hand, colleges of yesterday, 
which can hardly yet aspire to be colleges, have 
chosen to begin by hanging out what I suppose is 
regarded as the more showy and attractive sign of 
university. Be this as it may, I have nothing to do 
with names ; I look at things. By college or uni- 
versity^ for, according to the common practice here, I 
use these terms interchangeably, I mean an institu- 
tion founded and provided for the purpose of giving, 
not primary instruction, nor intermediate instruc- 
tion, but the highest instruction. A college or uni- 
versity aspires to impart, not merely the measure of 
teaching which is necessary to practical life and good 
citizenship, but that which is necessary to scholars ; 
in one word, the highest form of the learned culture 
of the age. And in order to fulfil this function, that 
is to say, to do in fact what it aspires to do, it must 
have an ample public library, and scientific appara- 
tus, and also a corps of living teachers, each one of 



48 



whom is expected to know the last word in his par- 
ticular department of study. 

Now I say that such an institution is not only a fit 
place for the highest intellectual culture, but, in the 
existing state of human knowledge, indispensable to 
it. In the infancy of science, when the sciences^ 
were but few, and one after another was to be creat- 
ed, genius was every thing. For this reason, in the 
early history of every science the greatest names are 
those of solitary thinkers and experimentalists. Less 
than a century ago, Priestley, with the rudest instru- 
ments and materials, could immortalize himself by 
brilliant discoveries in chemistry. But to take up 
chemistry now, where he and his illustrious followers 
have left the science, and to extend it by further dis- 
coveries equally brilliant, requires all the genius of 
Priestley, and in addition to this all the refinements 
of art, together with a familiar acquaintance with 
whatever has been done by others in the same field 
of inquiry, as the ground of new experiments and 
new generalizations. If it should be said that books 
alone might supply the necessary teaching, I answer, 
that the question is not what might be, but what will 
be. And besides, in the present state of science, and 
especially of what are called the progressive and de- 
monstrative sciences, what are books, what are jour- 
nals even which aim to make us acquainted with the 
latest movements in the scientific world, — what are all 
these, at least to beginners, without the cabinet and 
the laboratory ? Moreover, the true teacher, above 
all, if he is looked up to as one who has mastered 



49 



and extended an important branch of human knowl- 
edge, does more than teach ; he inspires. And one 
teacher for every thing will not do. Some of us can 
remember when what now make eight or ten distinct 
sciences were taught as one, and by one person, un- 
der the name of Natural Philosophy, and eight or ten 
more in the same way under the name of Natural 
History. But so rapid of late has been the progress 
of the sciences thus grouped together, and, as a natu- 
ral consequence, so complete the subdivision of sci- 
entific labor, that now a teacher, in order to keep 
himself on a level with the highest teaching in any 
one of these subdivisions, and still more, in order to 
assist in elevating it, must make it his specialty, and 
live for that alone. Meanwhile, the unity and integ- 
rity of human knowledge must not be broken. At a 
place of the highest general education, all the legiti- 
mate elements of a liberal culture must be provided 
for ; all must be represented in their connection and 
just proportions in the mind of the institution : not, 
of course, in a single mind, for that, as we have seen, 
is impossible, but in an aggregate mind; and this 
aggregate mind constitutes a college, a university. 

Let me not be understood to mean, that passing 
four or seven years at a college or a university will 
compensate for the want of natural ability or of 
moral character. Natural ability and an earnest pur- 
pose in life without a liberal education will do a 
great deal more for the individual and for the public, 
than a liberal education without natural ability and 
an earnest purpose in life. I am no advocate, I am 
7 



50 



no admirer, of refined and polished mediocrity. Cul- 
ture is no substitute for genius. The alternative is 
not genius or culture ; we would have both. In the 
existing state of society and the human mind, where 
the interests and connections of men have bepome so 
multiplied and complicated, it seems to me that no 
one can hope to exert a marked influence on the 
great courses of thought or action, without doing 
about as much harm as good, unless he has both; — 
genius, that culture may not be thrown away upon 
him; and culture, that genius may not run out into 
presumption and extravagance. And this is pre- 
cisely what colleges would bring about in the edu- 
cated classes. Colleges do not create genius, I allow ; 
neither do they stifle or extinguish it where it 
already exists: their highest function is to make 
genius wise, many-sided, and safe. 

But there are specific and radical objections to col- 
leges in general, and to colleges constituted as they 
now are, which it will be proper to explain, and, if 
possible, to bbviate. 

In the first place, it is objected, that colleges are 
naturally retrospective and stationary ; that no gen- 
erous movement for truth or humanity ever origi- 
nated here, or ever found countenance and sympathy 
there. For this reason, some are inclined to regard 
them as a standing army in the pay of a bigoted and 
selfish conservatism ; others, unwilling to ascribe to 
such institutions vitality of any kind, prefer to stig- 
matize them as no better than the hulks of a strand- 
ed past. 



51 



There is generally, in objections which have taken 
fast hold of many minds, some nucleus, or at any 
rate some show of truth, out of which the whole 
has grown. And so in this case. I admit that the 
natural position of the scholar in respect to change 
and reform is that of liberal conservatism, or, as I 
should prefer to express it, conservative liberalism. 
As a general rule, the inmates of colleges do not 
belong to that class of the people who are likely to 
be stung into revolt by want or oppression. And 
besides, it cannot be denied, that the more a man 
knows, especially of history, society, and human 
nature, the more distrustful he becomes of mere out- 
ward and artificial revolutions, — of any revolutions, 
in short, which are not the providential unfolding of 
principles, of an inward and organic life already be- 
gun. Unless we have the proposed object at least 
in idea, that is to say, unless the people and their 
leaders know what they want, agitation and revolu- 
tion are almost an unmixed evil ; and so, I suppose, 
colleges as a body would pronounce. So far, I am 
willing to admit, they are naturally allied to the great 
conservative interests of society. If, however, on the 
strength of this, any should hurry to the conclusion 
that colleges, as such, are opposed to progress, or to 
just and practicable reform, it would be in contradic- 
tion to nature and fact. 

Consider, for a moment, who they are who make 
up the public opinion which prevails in these institu- 
tions. They consist, for the most part, of young 
men, in whom hope predominates over fear, enthusi- 



52 



asm over calculation and interest, whose appointed 
studies make them familiar with the bold and origi- 
nal thinkers of all ages, and whose private reading 
and private sympathies are apt to be attracted to the 
writers constituting what is called Young Europe or 
Young America, and this, too, with little knowledge 
of the practical difficulties in the way of radical 
change. Now, reasoning from the nature of the 
case, are these the persons whom we should expect 
to carry to excess a reverence for ancient landmarks, 
give up the thought of improving upon what has 
been, and be but too content to stand still ? Look, 
then, at the facts. If we go back into the Middle 
Ages, it is impossible to read the life of such men as 
Abelard without being convinced that whatever there 
was then of free thought, or of progress, which is 
the child of free thought, found its centre of action 
in the universities. Likewise in the Lollard move- 
ment in England, the aurora of the great Reforma- 
tion, we are told that the universities partook, with 
the quickness and heat of young life, of the national 
awakening ; so much so, that Wiclif and his follow- 
ers were on the point of gaining the upper hand at 
Oxford itself, — nay, would probably have done so, 
but for the interference of despotic power. And 
when Luther came, he met nowhere with a more 
earnest and efficient support than among the stu- 
dents who flocked from all quarters to the University 
of Wittemberg, until it became, to borrow Luther's 
own expression, " a perfect hive." 

The same general observation applies to the more 



53 



recent struggles for civil freedom. On the eve of our 
own Ee volution one of the Fellows of this College 
wrote to Thomas Hollis respecting the students here : 
" They have caught the spirit of the times. Their 
declamations and forensic disputes breathe the spirit 
of liberty. This has always been encouraged, but 
they have sometimes been wrought up to such a 
pitch of enthusiasm, that it has been difficult for their 
Tutors to keep them within due bounds ; but their 
Tutors are fearful of giving too great a check to a dis- 
position, which may, hereafter, fill the country with 
patriots." And after the war was over, it would 
seem that the College was thought to have redeemed 
its early pledges ; for Governor Hancock, in his 
speech at the inauguration of President Willard, did 
not hesitate to call it, " in some sense, the parent and 
nurse of the late happy Eevolution in this Common- 
wealth." But why multiply instances to prove what 
we might confidently conclude beforehand would 
be 1 Who does not know that, in all the efi'orts 
during the present century to introduce free insti- 
tutions among the Continental nations of Europe, 
the professors and students in the universities have, 
as a class, hazarded the most, and sufiered the most '? 
Sagacious observers, judging after the event, may 
pronounce these men precipitate, — blame them for 
plunging the masses into a conflict for which they 
were unprepared, and which has ended, as might 
have been expected, in riveting their fetters more 
strongly than ever. They may do more ; they may 
hold them up as a warning against theoretical poll- 



54 



ticians and reformers ; some may even have the heart 
to deride them as martyrs and confessors to a folly, to 
a dream. All this I can understand; in part of it I 
am disposed to concur ; but I cannot understand how 
any one, in the face of such facts, should still insist 
that the influence of colleges is adverse to human 
progress, or that liberal studies disincline men to 
take part with the people against their oppressors. 

Indeed, this whole charge is a striking instance of 
the power of mere assertion and reiteration to give 
currency to an opinion which, whether well-founded 
or not formerly, is now not only untrue, but the 
opposite of true. To whom is it owing that the 
physical sciences have made more progress during 
the last quarter of a century, than in any two centu- 
ries which preceded it. 1 will not say, to colleges 
wholly ; but I believe I may say, to colleges mainly. 
Even in theology, which for obvious reasons is more 
stationary than any other science, wherever theo- 
logical schools or colleges are established, I care not 
on what foundation, and the lights of a varied and 
concentrated erudition are brought to bear upon the 
study of the Sacred Volume, we soon begin to see a 
progress. So noticeable has this at length become, 
that cautious men have begun to feel that the danger 
is not on the side of stability, but on the side of 
change. The passion for making discoveries, for 
original investigation, for new ideas, has seized us all. 
This love of innovation is also beginning to show it- 
self, not merely in the results, but in the methods of 
study ; and the danger is, not that we shall attempt 



55 



too little, but too much ; that the practicable will be 
lost, or compromised, in a vain striving after the im- 
practicable. 

Another objection sometimes made against col- 
leges, especially in this country, is, that they are 
essentially aristocratical institutions ; that they are 
an ti- democratic in principle, inasmuch as their ten- 
dency is to uphold a privileged or favored class. 

Here, again, it is not difficult to trace to its source 
the natural jealousy, on the whole salutary, which 
has given birth to this charge. Colleges, of course, 
are, for the most part, founded and endowed by the 
rich: they are also frequented by the sons of the 
rich, whose social position and means of expense 
sometimes, though not often, give them there, as they 
do their fathers in general society, an artificial and 
undeserved consequence. Add to this, that in some 
countries they are aristocratical institutions. In 
England, for example, political and religious causes 
have conspired, ever since the Reformation, to make 
Oxford and Cambridge little more than what they 
have sometimes been called, — the great finishing 
schools for the sons of the nobility and gentry, with 
a sprinkling of talent from the middle classes, mostly 
intended for the church. There are also other coun- 
tries in Europe, Austria, for example, where the 
whole scheme and apparatus of instruction, from the 
lowest to the highest, are avowedly conceived on the 
plan, not of making good scholars, but good sub- 
jects ; and every body knows what absolute govern- 
ments mean by good subjects, I do not seek to 



56 



hide or extenuate these facts. View them, however, 
in what light you please, they do not originate in 
the constitution of colleges, as such, but in the gen- 
eral constitution of society, or in the social or polit- 
ical structure of particular states. 

If, then, we turn from these mixed and anomalous 
cases, and look at the constitution of colleges, as 
such, we must admit that, so far from being anti- 
democratic in principle, they are eminently the re- 
verse. In them, theoretically, at least, merit deter- 
mines rank ; natural nobility is every thing ; the 
nobility of birth and wealth nothing. And history 
shows that it is not so in theory alone. Throughout 
the Middle Ages the Church constituted almost the 
sole democratic element in society ; that is to say, it 
opened a way, and almost the only one, by which the 
gifted and active in humble life might raise them- 
selves to the highest places. But it did this mainly 
through its great conventual and cathedral schools or 
colleges, which had the effect to reveal talent wher- 
ever it existed, to persons who knew how to appre- 
ciate talent, and turn it to account. And so in 
modern times. I do not mean that colleges are the 
only avenues to distinction, which are here open to 
all ; it is the glory of a free country like ours, that 
every avenue to distinction is open to all. Extraordi- 
nary administrative talent, extraordinary capacities 
for business of any kind, if accompanied by industry 
and integrity, are sure to raise a man to eminence. 
Our great merchants, many of whom began with 
nothing, are great men ; some of them, as was said of 



57 



those of Tyre, " are princes " ; but so, likewise, are 
our great scholars. It is a sad page in the history 
of letters, which records the early struggles of the 
poor scholar ; — the father laboring- beyond his 
strength, the sister ready to give up her last indul- 
gence, and the mother her last crust of bread, that 
he may complete his education. But soon the scene 
changes, and we behold that poor scholar standing 
erect and self-confident before kings. 

I am aware that this objection is sometimes made 
to assume a subtler form : it is said, that the poor 
scholar, as soon as he takes his place among aristo- 
crats, becomes an aristocrat himself That there 
have been cases of recreancy of this sort, under cir- 
cumstances peculiarly offensive, I do not deny ; but 
I believe that they exist much oftener in the jealou- 
sies and suspicions of persons who would be glad of 
an opportunity to do the same thing, and think this 
evidence enough that all do it who can. At any 
rate there are considerations, not applying to distinc- 
tion won in business and by wealth alone, which are 
likely to keep the educated man true to his early 
professions and sympathies. In the first place, I 
may mention again the liberalizing effect of his 
studies ; then, too, as a writer or public man, he is 
more entirely and publicly committed to his princi- 
ples, which makes the abandonment of them more 
difficult ; and even if all other motives should fail, 
there is the pride of intellect, which finds its gratifi- 
cation, not in going over to other men's opinions and 
ways, but in bringing them over to his. 
8 



58 



And what shall I say of that part of Xhe charge 
which represents colleges as upholding a privileged 
or favored class 1 That they uphold a learned class, 
and that without them no such class could well ex- 
ist, I readily admit ; but why this class should be 
called a privileged or favored class, I am yet to learn. 
By a privileged or favored class, taken in an objec- 
tionable and offensive sense, I understand a class 
which is better paid than others, or which the com- 
munity is, in some way or other, heavily taxed to 
support. But this certainly cannot be alleged against 
the learned class with any semblance or shadow of 
justice. I do not say, as some have done, in their 
eagerness to repel the charge, that no labor is so ill- 
requited as intellectual labor ; for this would not be 
true. Of course intellectual labor, considered gen- 
erally, is at a higher rate than manual labor ; but 
the intellectual labor which is at the highest rate is 
administrative and financial, and not learned. You 
pay the agents and treasurers of your great corpora- 
tions more than you do your judges. A privileged 
or favored class, forsooth ! Take the whole profes- 
sion of teachers in this Commonwealth, including 
religious teachers, whose work is not only intel- 
lectual, but learned. Looked to as a means of ob- 
taining an independence, or even a competency, who 
will pretend that it holds out a better prospect, or so 
good a prospect, as many of the mechanical trades 1 
At the same time, I do not suppose that complaints, 
or remonstrances, or agitation, are likely to be of 
much avail in this case. The evil, as in respect to 



59 



most other depressed and suffering classes, is doubt- 
less, for the most part, the consequence of a law in 
political economy ; the supply is greater than the 
demand. But where the majority of a learned body 
are confessedly over-worked and under-paid, it is a 
little too hard to turn round upon them, and mock 
their poverty by calling them, in a worldly sense, a 
privileged or favored class. 

But the gravest objection to colleges, and that 
which is most frequently in the mouths of consid- 
erate and good men, is drawn from the moral dan- 
gers, real or supposed, by which they are beset. 

For a full discussion of this important topic I 
have not time ; and, besides, it would lead to state- 
ments and counter-statements, some of which would 
be out of place on an occasion like the present. But 
it must not be passed over in silence, nor with a 
mere declamatory appeal, of which, as it seems to 
me, we have had quite enough, as its tendency is to 
leave a false impression as regards the actual state 
of things, and to create vague and unreasonable ex- 
pectations. 

As the inmates of colleges are collected from the 
whole community on no principle of selection, except, 
perhaps, that of worldly competency, which is not a 
moral distinction, it follows almost necessarily that 
all moral tendencies are represented there, from the 
best to the worst. It is not true, as a general rule, 
that bad moral tendencies begin to be developed 
there ; the whole responsibility of colleges consists 
in this, that these tendencies, being freed from many 



60 



domestic and school restraints, find opportunity there 
for a more rapid development. With a few, a very 
few melancholy exceptions, the future course of a 
student, both morally and intellectually, may be pre- 
dicted with an almost unerring precision by the end 
of the first term. In my communications with par- 
ents, there is nothing which has perplexed me more, 
than my apparent inability to make them understand 
this plain statement, that to three quarters of every 
class, college is one of the safest places in the world ; 
to the other quarter, one of the most dangerous. 

But some may ask. Why this distinction between 
the three quarters, who, according to the ordinary 
measures of human imperfection, are upright and 
strong, and the one quarter, who are weak and frail ] 
Why not bestow more care on the one quarter who 
are weak and frail, and make them all upright and 
strong "? 

I will begin my reply to these questions by telling 
the public a secret. Even as it is, more than half 
the care of every College Faculty in this country is 
actually bestowed on the one quarter who are here 
commended to their special attention. Is not this 
their full proportion 1 Are they alone to be thought 
of, and the rest neglected 1 But perhaps it will be 
said, that want of success is proof that the care is 
not wisely bestowed. If by want of success is meant, 
that colleges are not as successful in this respect now 
as formerly, or here as elsewhere, a fair allowance 
being made for the diiference in general society, I 
deny it utterly. If, on the other hand, the words 



61 



are to' be taken absolutely, if you are expecting that 
there are to be absolutely no failures, you are ex- 
pecting from colleges what is to be found nowhere ; 
what never has been, and never can be, until God 
shall change the constitution of human nature. 

Let me not be understood to mean, that colleges, 
as at present conducted in this country, are in all 
respects what they ought to be, and might be. Some 
of the difficulties are, I suppose, irremediable. Young 
minds are full of good principles and dispositions ; 
but these good principles and dispositions have not 
taken the form of habit : that is to say, they have 
not become character^ but act as impulses only ; and 
the best impulses cannot be depended on like charac- 
ter. Public opinion in colleges, which has so much 
to do with the morality of most persons, is also sub- 
ject to an obvious defect. It does not grow up, like 
the public opinion of the world, out of an amalga- 
mation of the opinions of the young and old of all 
classes, one extreme balancing and correcting anoth- 
er ; it grows up out of an amalgamation of the opin- 
ions of young men of a single class, and of course is 
liable to all the prejudices and illusions of that age 
and class, only made more intense by a sense of num- 
bers. Furthermore, these evils are aggravated in 
American colleges by the circumstance that under- 
graduates, or at least the two lower classes of under- 
graduates, though they are of an age, and in general 
are pursuing the studies, proper to a high school, are 
put under college or university discipline ; that is, 
are left, for the most part, to take care of themselves. 



62 



Something is done by the daily routine of study, and 
by the personal influence and intercourse of teachers 
to limit this danger ; as much, I am inclined to think, 
as ever was done, and, judging from the records of 
this College, and from my own recollections and ex- 
perience, with as much success. More, however, 
might doubtless be done. I concur, therefore, in the 
feeling, so frequently and earnestly expressed by some 
of the best friends of the College, that what is most 
needed here, as a means of greater moral security to 
the students, is the constant service of a holy, devout, 
earnest preacher and pastor. I am aware of the 
obstacles to such a measure ; but, so all-important is 
the end proposed, I cannot help thinking that, in the 
minds of sensible and practical men, these obstacles 
will soon be found to give way. For my own part, 
the religious opinions of the candidate would be a 
secondary matter, provided only, that he had the 
necessary power of personal influence, and the right 
spiritual endowments. 

Meanwhile nothing is gained, as it seems to me, 
by exaggerating the evil or the danger. In this Col- 
lege, and under the present constitution of things, as 
much religious instruction is given as ever, and in 
addition to this the students have access to all the 
other and usual means of Christian nurture. About 
one third of the undergraduates pass their Sundays 
at home ; about one quarter worship in the difl'erent 
churches in this city ; and the rest, in the College 
Chapel. If any should say, that this is found to be 
to no efiect, they speak without reason, and against 



63 



evidence. Some, I know, are disposed to infer the 
irreligious condition of colleges in general, and of 
this College in particular, from the fact that fewer 
graduates go into the ministry now than formerly; 
but it is easy to see that this is owing much more to 
the altered state of the Church, than to the altered 
state of colleges. The same remark is applicable to 
the growth of extravagance and expense in colleges, 
which is a constant theme of complaint, and of just 
complaint. Who does not know that this also is to 
be traced to changes in general society, much more 
than to any changes in colleges, or to any thing 
which any changes in colleges could prevent 1 If 
you would reform colleges eifectually, in this respect, 
or in most other respects, it would be better to begin 
by reforming general society, and especially what is 
called " good society." Again, there are those who 
can see nothing but a total secularization of colleges 
in the circumstance that the teachers are now seldom 
taken from the clerical profession. This, however, 
is not because less importance is attached to religion, 
or to the religious character of teachers, but because 
teaching has become a profession by itself, made ne- 
cessary by the demand of a higher special prepara- 
tion. When a vacancy occurs among teachers, it 
is likely, of course, to be supplied out of the num- 
ber of those who have specially fitted themselves 
for it. 

Next to religion, there is no subject on which there 
is so much cant as education ; and the cause of it is 
the same in both cases. All men have occasion to 



64 



speak of both, and many persons speak at a venture, 
or are tempted to say what they think they ought to 
think, and not what they think in reality. This 
cant is the more to be regretted, because its tendency 
is to dishearten practical educators, and hinder them 
from attempting useful reforms in education ; for, as 
far as it prevails, it indicates one of two things: 
either that the people are expecting what is impos- 
sible, or that they do not know what they want. 
These reforms must be left, as it seems to me, in the 
hands of practical men, and not in the hands of prac- 
tical men in general, but of practical educators ; in- 
asmuch as, for reasons mentioned above, it will not 
do to argue from human nature and public opinion 
as manifested in the world, to the human nature and 
public opinion of colleges. 

To all that has been said, some may reply, We 
have no objections to colleges, but only to their being 
encouraged and supported at the public expense. 
The common schools are for the poor, and ought, 
therefore, to be an object of the public care ; but col- 
leges are for the rich, and hence may safely be left 
to take care of themselves. 

I warn the people, and the friends of the people, 
against this doctrine. To adopt it would be to act 
in concert with that portion of the rich, who avow it 
to be their policy, as it unquestionably is, to make 
the highest culture as expensive as possible in order 
to exclude competition, or secure a monopoly to 
their own children, to whom the expense is nothing. 
Colleges are, it is true, for the rich: it is a great 



65 



public advantage that their sons should be educated 
there, whether they become distinguished as scholars 
or not. They will have leisure to occupy, and wealth 
to dispose of; and it is of great importance, even in 
a public point of view, that they should know how 
to do both with wisdom, refinement, and taste. But 
colleges are not exclusively for the sons of the rich : 
they are for all those, whether rich or poor, whose 
character and natural gifts and aptitudes mark them 
out for success and eminence in science and letters. 
The problem is, to hold out encouragement to such 
persons, without having it operate, at the same time, 
as a lure to the idle and incompetent; and I think 
with your Excellency, that in the recent act for 
the establishment of State scholarships the Legis- 
lature has solved this problem with admirable 
wisdom. 

And let not the munificence of the Legislature or 
of individuals be restrained by the cry, that, do what 
we may, we never cau rival the princely institutions 
of learning in the Old "World. A large proportion 
of these princely- institutions of learning in the Old 
World would not continue to flourish for an hour, if 
the patronage of government were to be withdrawn. 
The Eector of the University at Munich, in an ad- 
dress delivered to the students last year, expresses 
himself strongly to this point. " It cannot be denied 
that in our days a great majority of students resort 
to the University only for the end, and with the pur- 
pose, of some time or other attaining to a public 
appointment in this way. If this end could be 



66 



accomplished without the evidence of completed uni- 
versity studies, the number of those resorting to the 
most frequented universities would surely be counted, 
not by thousands, but by hundreds."* Why say 
that the possibility of rivalling or equalling such in- 
stitutions is placed for ever beyond our reach'? I 
suppose that the people of the Old World are not 
any older when they are born than we, are, and that 
they do not know any more than we at that time. 
Whatever they know, they, like us, must learn after- 
wards : the difference, therefore, must grow out of a 
difference of facilities ; and these facilities must con- 
sist, for the most part, in books and in men. As 
good men we can have; for we can send our own, as 
is not uncommon now, to be educated under all their 
advantages ; and besides, as we have found, in more 
instances than one, we can have the best of their 
men. And what shall I say of hooks. There is 
nothing of which it is so difficult to convince men 
who are not scholars, as of this crying want of books, 
of all the books that enter into the history of any 
and every important discussion. Among scholars, 
however, nothing is more discouraging, more fatal to 
ambition and high endeavor ; for with what heart can 
they undertake original investigations in the existing 
state of science or letters, knowing beforehand, as 
they must, that many .of these investigations will 
soon be arrested by the failure of the necessary 



* Dr. Hieron. v. Bayer, Ueher die Bestimmung der TJniversitaten und 
den Beruf der Sludirenden, pp. 5, 6. 



67 



authorities, and all their labor be lost 1 When, how- 
ever, we consider how much a single individual has 
done in a neighboring city, not only to found a great 
library, but to provide for its continual increase, and 
reflect, at the same time, that the library of this Col- 
lege is likely to become more and more an object of 
the liberality of a whole community, whose liberality 
never fails, we need not despair. 

We have been ridiculed for placing our golden age 
in the future, and not, as other nations do, in the 
past. But the vast and imposing destinies of this 
country are beginning to arrest the attention of 
those who a little while ago affected to despise us as 
a people of yesterday, without a literature or a his- 
tory. Whatever civil or industrial distinction is in 
reserve for us, let us hope, let us believe, let us re- 
solve, that it shall be crowned by an equal distinc- 
tion in science and letters. 

I turn to you, young gentlemen, as the living 
vouchers of the truth of what I have said in favor of 
colleges ; as the strong arms and warm hearts which 
are to assist in working out every hope I have 
uttered. All else is vain, — a breath of air, — if this 
argument should fail. 

Though assuming new relations, I am glad to 
know that I do not come among you as a stranger, 
or with any purpose or wish to change essentially 
the discipline of the College, or the spirit with which 
it has been administered. Faithfully to administer 
this discipline is a duty I owe to the reputation and 
success of the College itself, in which I trust we all 



68 



take a common pride ; and I also owe it to you; 
You come here — I know that most of you come 
here for the literary advantages of the institution^ 
and I owe it to you to do what I can to make it a 
quiet and safe place of study. But let me hope that 
more and more may he done through a paternal and 
Christian influence. Let me hope that more and 
more may be done by the very genius of the placa 
The spirits of the sainted dead, who consecrated this 
school of the prophets to Christ and the Church, 
hover over us now. In that presence remember 
what you owe to your parents and friends, whose 
affections and pride, whose very life, are bound up 
with the hope of your well-doing. Remeaiber what 
you owe to your country. If there is not wisdom 
enough, if there is not moderation enough, in the 
educated classes, to restrain the heats of party, — the 
violence, the inconsideration, the injustice on all 
sides, — our best hopes are in imminent peril. What 
is wanted is, not that a man should be indifferent to 
the evils in the country, but that he should deal with 
them in the spirit of one who loves his country. 
Remember what you owe to God. All the distinc- 
tions of birth, and wealth, and intellect will pass 
away : what will endure for ever of your labors here, 
is the earnest purpose to fulfil the high vocation of 
the Christian scholar. " This also we humbly and 
earnestly beg, that human things may not prejudice 
such as are divine ; neither that from the unlocking 
of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater 
natural light, any thing of incredulity, or intellectual 



69 



night, may arise in our minds towards divine mys- 
teries. But rather, that by our mind, thoroughly 
cleansed and purged from fancy and vanities, and 
yet subject and perfectly given up to the Divine 
Oracles, there may be given unto faith the things 
that are faith's." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 895 516_7j 



